A question always arises concerning the best way to glue watercolor, pastel and drawing paper to a solid support. Rubber cement will quickly turn yellow. Hide glue and rabbitskin must be applied hot. Higgins used to make an excellent "Vegetable Glue" but they seem to have discontinued it, leaving us with nothing but expensive and toxic mounting materials from 3M corporation. As with so many artist materials, this technique got its start in the kitchen. It's similar to the flour and water paste that your mother showed you when you were a child. Of course there are a few tricks we need to know to make it useful for artists. Soaking the flour in water causes the gluten to expand a bit and absorb the water. Mixing flour and water makes an acceptable paste for children's projects, but what makes it useful for artists is boiling it. Boiling the flour in water causes each particle to expand into tiny interlocking cells that look like spiders from which tendrils radiate and interlock. It's those radiating tendrils that provide the binding strength for everything from a glue to a roux (in the case of a roux, the tendrils wrap around fat globules, thus binding water to oil...now you know how the underlying principle in a Sauce Bèchamel). To most westerners flour mean wheat flour. Wheat will make a fairly adhesive paste. So will rye, buckwheat and potato starch. Oat flour makes a much better adhesive but the best for our purposes is rice flour. Some asian markets carry it. To make the best paste, use only the most finely ground flour, or rice powder...preferably that labeled sweet rice flour. It's hard to find and considerably more expensive than common rice flour but well worth the search. We offer it in reasonable quantities for the artist. Mix the rice flour into cold water to make a thin slurry. Apply heat until it begins to boil. Stir it frequently until the paste becomes almost clear. Cover it and let it cool a bit before you add a small amount of glycerin. The glycerin prevents the dried glue from cracking. You now have a superior glue that will not react with paper, never stain and is unlikely to lose its bond unless you steam it to remove it. For collage, decoupage or papier mache, there is no other glue that comes close. What follows is a method for mounting a pastel to a board. I chose to demonstrate with a pastel because it is the most delicate of all works on paper. If you learn to mount an unfixed pastel, you can mount any art on paper. Lay waxed paper or some other slick paper on the table. Carefully lay the pastel face down on the waxed paper and place small weights (small stacks of coins will do) on the back in the corners and in the center. Spray water onto the back (I use distilled water whenever applying water to artwork). The paper will try to curl but the weights will prevent that. When the paper relaxes, remove the coins and gently smooth the back surface with a damp sponge. The ideal is to wet the back without allowing the face to get wet. That is especially important in the case of watercolors. With a dry cloth or paper towel, blot as much water as you can remove, about an inch from the edges. This semi-dry border is where you will apply the glue. Using a broad camel, ox hair or synthetic brush, apply a coat of glue to the borders. Brush it out so that there is an even coating all around. The only place the glue is applied is to the edges; the center is left damp but untouched. Carefully turn the wetted paper over onto the mounting board (100% rag) and place waxed paper onto the surface. Gently smooth the paper down onto the board, using the waxed paper as a slip-sheet. A rubber roller will be helpful here because it won't stretch the paper. Now lay another matte board or chipboard over the waxed paper and apply some weights. Let it dry overnight. When you remove the weights you will have a perfectly mounted pastel which has the advantage of being mounted to the board only at the edges. There will always be a tiny air space between the back of the paper and the mounting board. This will prevent any pollutants or acids from migrating into the artwork. The glue will never discolor and, if it ever needs to be removed from the backing, the edges can be steamed and the glue will release. The paste can be kept refrigerated for a week, after which time it loses strength and should be discarded.